


A Little Birdy Told Me . . .

by WrenWriter13



Category: DCU, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: African-American Duke Thomas, Alfred Knows All, Alfred and his Gang of Orphans, Alfred's Cookies are Life, Arab/Chinese Damian Wayne, Batman needs emotional support, Bruce stop adopting children, Dick Grayson is Robin, Dick Grayson is a Ray of Sunshine, Dick Grayson is a cinnamon roll, Dick Grayson's superpower is being adorable, Gotham is very racially diverse, Gotham probably has an entire schedule that says when a villain's most likely to attack, He's also half Latino, I feel it should be mentioned, Jason Todd has red hair, Korean Timothy Drake, Latino Jason Todd, Oriental Cassandra Cain, Other, Robin (Dick Grayson) is a cute kid, Romani Dick Grayson, The batboys are not white, Tim Drake Knows, You can fight me on that, no beta we die like idiots, not as much as Alfred tho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:02:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24664306
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WrenWriter13/pseuds/WrenWriter13
Summary: A bunch of one-shots i do in my spare time about the various Robins.
Relationships: Implied Diana/Clark Kent
Comments: 43
Kudos: 58





	1. . . . Why Robin's Colors are so Bright

A twinkling cherry cackle filled the streets of Gotham. Some recognized it as the voice of Robin, a new vigilante that had recently been showing up with the Batman to fight crime.

Robin was soaring through the cloudy night skies of Gotham, smog filling the air and making the shadows darker and even more prominent. The only sight of color in the sky was the bright, blinding, traffic light colors of Robin's suit.

Robin took a running leap off a building and flipped through the air before pulling out his grappling gun and swinging to the next skyscrape. He had only felt this free with Mami and Tati back at Haley's Circus, when they swung on the trapeze and flew above the crowds under the bright tent. 

Ever since Mister Wayne had taken him out of Juvie, he had been learning about this new place, this huge metal jail filled with violence and shadows. It's why his suit was so bright. 

He had to show the people of Gotham that there were more colors than grey, black and red. 

He had to prove that there was light.

And he would use his Mami's suit to do it


	2. . . . What Happened When Robin met the JL

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin meets the Justice League

* * *

Robin was definitely not nervous. He was definitely not panicking. And he was most definitely  _ not  _ hiding under Batman's Cape in the middle of the Watchtower surrounded by Justice Leaguers.

Nope, definitely not.

. . .

Yes, yes he was.

His crystal blue eyes widened under his domino mask as he watched the superheroes gather around for the meeting.

"So, Batman," Superman began, "I heard a rumor you have a kid working with you. Took down Tony Zuko? Goes by the alias 'Robin'? Is an eight year old orphan named Richard Grayson?" He quickly quizzed Batman, and the Leaguers leaned forward in interest, hoping to see the two famous heroes fight and Batman's explanation for letting a  _ kid - really? A child - join the hero game _ .

Bats' right ring finger twitched.  _ The signal!  _ Robin pulled up a dark grey mask around his face that would muffle the sound of his breathing. He slipped through the capes, cloaks, and costumes of various heroes. 

He quickly reached a vent - just where the Watchtower blueprints said it would be - and climbed in.

Silently, he climbed through the twisting vents until he reached the vent cover that was directly above Superman, who was - luckily - still ranting and _very_ distracted.

"Why in the universe would you let a  _ child  _ fight as a hero?!?! He could be killed! Any of us could be killed in this job and you're letting a child fight!" Superman was still ranting. Robin found it cool that his favorite hero - besides Batman, of course - wanted him to be safe. 

He hoped Superman would be able to forgive him for this, but he needed to prove he was capable to all the heroes, not just Batman.

Batman brought his hand to rest on the table the Leaguers were gathered around. The signal to jump.  _ You can do this Robin! That's the ok!  _

_ Ready!  _ He removed the vent cover.

_ Set!  _ He swung his legs over the edge.

_ Jump!  _ He fell to the ground and landed on Superman's back.

He quickly took some kryptonite from a pouch on his belt and held it to the super's neck, restraining him.

The other heroes had had varied responses. Some had lept away from the falling child - unbalanced and spooked - some had flown into the air - ready to fight - and others had gotten into fighting positions to fend off the intruder. 

All while Batman sat in the center of it all smirking slightly at the pandemonium the eight year old caused.

"You were saying, Kent?" Robin quickly lept off of Superman's back before he got hurt and put the kryptonite in its lead case. He turned and jumped onto Batman's shoulder where he crouched from his perch and looked adorably apologetic.

"I'm so sorry Mr. Kent! I didn't want to hurt you!" He gasped and the whites of his domino mask widened comically, "Ididn'thurtyoudidIohmygoshI'msosorryherehaveafreehug!" Robin did a backflip off of Bat's shoulders - who's still sitting, by the way - runs over to Superman and leaps onto the stunned super, trapping Clark's arms to his sides and squeezing viciously with an audible squeak coming from Kent.

"And who is this, Bruce?" Diana arched an eyebrow and looked pointedly at Batman - he was smug that  _ his  _ kid managed to get the jump on the entire League.

"This is Robin, my protege."

Diana blinked. She was _not_ expecting that. She turned to face the small child and looked him over. Robin let go of Superman and stood nervously in front of her.

"Hi Miss Diana." He squeaked quietly.  After a long pause, her gaze softened and she smiled.

"Come here, little one. You are going to call me Aunt Diana." She crouched done and held her arms out in an open invitation for him to hug her. Robin's eyes lit up and he dashed forward to leap into her grasp, where she picked him up and spun him in the air.

And that was how Robin met the Justice League


	3. . . . Tim was There When Jason Stole Batman's Tires

Tim Drake was a lonely child. He spent most of his life alone, mostly caring for himself. He was fine with that. He could be alone. He was always alone. But never for so long. Timothy Drake has been alone for two months and his parents show no signs of coming back. Every morning, Tim’s maid woke Tim up and brought him food. Tim would always find food on the table at dinner time, but other than that, Tim was all alone.

He spent a lot of time online. He was only eleven, but he could usually tell when something was wrong far better than most adults. It started a couple months ago.

First, Richard Grayson moved out of Wayne Manor and into Bludhaven. Robin disappeared. Nightwing took his place, in Bludhaven. All doubt that Bruce Wayne was Batman and Richard Grayson was Robin - now Nightwing - faded away.

Slowly, Batman/Bruce grew more agitated. Three weeks ago, a lowly thug got a hit on Batman’s back - a hit Robin normally would’ve blocked. It got worse from there. Last week, the Joker escaped from Arkham. He’ll be in a body cast for the next six months.

Bruce Wayne’s smiles grew more strained. His eyes grew more tired. He hadn’t held a gala since Richard left. Everyone knew he was struggling. No one said a word.

Tim had taken to following Batman  _ and  _ Bruce Wayne more often. Punch that one thug here, bribe the cops to take care of small things like robberies and muggings there, drop off evidence at the GCPD to put criminals in longer with no bail. Small things to help out like that.

Tim sighed. He climbed out his window and jumped over to the tree outside it. He carefully and slowly climbed down to the ground floor. Once on the ground, he pulled a dark red hoodie on and flipped the hood to cover his face. It wouldn’t be unusual, he knew. Gothamites weren't used to the sun, and today was bright and hot. The entire week had been bright and hot though, so Mr. Freeze had already been put back in Gotham.

Most Gothamites knew the pattern. Mr. Freeze would attack on bright hot days when everyone needed to cool off and Gotham would be cool the rest of that day and the next day. But on long weeks of heat like this? Mr Freeze wouldn’t be back out for another month, in fact, most ice-themed villains would refuse to leave the confines of the sweet, cold, air-conditioned hell that was Arkhum Asylum.

So the streets were as safe as Gotham would get. Which meant Gothamitez everywhere. Which meant it was easier to blend in with the street rats in his dirty, torn, blood-red hoodie that was probably once white and looked very blood-spattered - which it was, just the blood of thugs Batman had fought so he could blend in with street rats. His hair was messed up, his shorts were torn ripped, his sneakers had holes worn into them. He fit in perfectly.

He quickly pulled his oversized sleeve over his “watch”. It was designed to look destroyed and nearly worthless, but in it was a tracker and complex computer system that used traffic lights, speedometers and street cameras to figure out where the Batmobile was at any time. It was accurate within 300 feet, depending on which part of town it was and how much Batman followed traffic laws. It was connected to his ear piece that would give him instructions on where to go, if someone was tailing him, and alert him to Batman or Robin sightings.

_ Turn left into the next alley. Then make another left in four left side roads.  _ Sounded a feminine and quiet voice in his ear. He glanced around suspiciously before darting into the small alley - just his size - and passed four slightly larger offshoots on his left before going left again.

_ Scorpion Blazer Gang members are directly ahead. Jump up the fire escape on your right and go to the roof to avoid.  _ He did just that.

_ Follow the alley on the roof for six turns. You will come to a dumpster. The Batmobile appears to be parked next to it.  _ He darted that way before crouching down and peering over the edge. Yup, sure enough, the Batmobile was parked in the alley partially obscured by the dumpster to hide it from the road, but clearly visible from above or if someone walked into the alley. 

And there was a kid. Tim did a quick assessment. The boy had brownish hair that could appear bright red if washed enough. The boy appeared to be of Latino heritage but had bright blue eyes. THe strangest thing was what the boy was doing.

He was  _ jacking _ the Batmobile’s  _ tires. _

_ He _ was jacking  _ the Batmobile’s _ tires!

_ Batman is 500 feet away and approaching fast by ground, he appears to be tackling a minor villain to the ground. _

Oh. Oh no. This Kid was in trouble. Really, really big trouble. 

TIm whistled sharply and caught the kids attention. He jerked his head to the side to signal the kid to leave and made the street kid sign for Batman. Palms on his face, fingers pointed down and his pointer and thumb fingers made a mask. Over his eyes. 

_ Batman has ziptied the thug and is 300 feet away. _

The kid shook his head and turned to the fourth tire. He already had three tires! He didn’t need a fourth! 

_ Batman is 200 feet away. _

The twelve year old got the fourth tire halfway done.

_ Batman is 100 feet away. _

Tim glanced pitifully at the kid and hesitated before getting his camera and phone ready. He began to take a video with his phone and readied his camera to take pictures of Batman.

_ Batman is 30 feet away and entering the alley _ .

The tall dark figure saw the kid trying to get the fourth tire off the Batmobile and cleared his throat.

“What are you doing?” He asked in his deep and gruff voice. The kid looked at Batman and paled as much as his tan skin would allow him to.

“Stealing your tires?” It was a question, not a statement.

“What’s your name, kid? I’ll take you to your parents, I’m sure they’re worried about you.”

“I- I’m an orphan, you can’t take me home to my parents. My name is Jason Todd.”


	4. ... Where the Batman Theme Song Came From

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> NighttimeWarrior7 helped me with this idea. That was a fun day

11 year old Richard Grayson had a song stuck in his head. He had been watching cartoons on Saturday when he realized that all superheroes had a theme song. Except Batman. Robin, of course, was determined to right this horrendous wrong and make a theme song for Batman. He almost had it done, but it was missing something.

He began to hum as he punched a thug - probably a gang member - that had been guarding a hostage and slowly grew louder and louder.

“Nananananananana, Nanananananana, Nanananananana, Nanananananana, Nanananananana-” He turned to face the last thug, which looked right behind Robin in pure terror. The thug screamed, “BATMAN!!” as the dark shadow glared at the idiot. Robin, oblivious to the Dark Knight behind him, smiled in triumph as his song was completed.

“Of course! That’s what I was missing! Thank you!” RObin, now sure of himself began singing at the top of his lungs, “ NANANANANANANANA, NANANANANANANANA, BATMAN!!!!!!”

“Robin. What are you doing?”


	5. . . . It's a Learned Habit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tim notices something among the Chaos. A pattern.

Tim stared on in dismay at the chaos around him. Maybe chaos deserved a capitol? Yeah, Chaos is pretty accurate.

It started a few months ago. Jason was apparently not dead and was no longer killing people too often, sadly, the Batfam was uninformed of this slightly more sane Jason and only knew of the Red Hood. But this is definitely where the Chaos began. A cabinet just . . . appeared . . . in the dining room. No one said anything, and no one knew who put it there (they assumed it was Alfred) until Tim walked in running on four cups of coffee and too much caffeine to be safe.

Tim walked straight into the cabinet and landed on the ground with a thud. Alfred wouldn’t put something in the way of Tim’s sleep-deprived path, because he wouldn’t want to hurt Tim. Damian couldn’t have lifted the huge cabinet without help. Dick was in Bludhaven when it appeared. Bruce already had cabinets for all his things. Tim wouldn’t have put the cabinet there, and he definitely didn’t lift it. So who put the cabinet in the dining room.

A bright red mark appeared on Tim’s head, but that was ignored for the cabinets various wooden doors had opened. A new mystery appeared as the open doors revealed row after row of books. The Classics. The type of book you only read in school when required to, or during summer when you were very bored and had days of your time on hand. (unless you were Damian and Alfred, who often read those books) (unless you were Bruce who used to read them with Jason) (Unless you were the poor, dead Jason, who refused to read anything but them and would criticize them with a passion when they were wrong)

But no one knew who the books belonged to.

They swept the case for prints, they checked security footage, they asked Alfred. Nothing came up positive. It was a ghost.

Every few weeks, a new book would appear in the case. Well, I say new, but usually they were old, repaired, well-worn books, that were very old. Soon books began to appear written in different languages. Then older books. Then more modern books.

One day, a copy of Frankenstein appeared with a little note inside.

_ Guess I’m Frankenstein's Monster, didn’t think Ra’s would be Victor Frankenstein though. Sup B. I got kicked outta hell. Mind if I crash at your place for a few weeks.  _

Bruce read the note, and you could see the moment it clicked for him.

“The Red Hood. Is Jason Todd. Jason is alive.” He whispered it in an awed voice. His eyes wide in disbelief as Dick snatched the note from him. Tears fell from Dick’s face as he looked over the note again and again.

“Th-that’s Jason’s handwriting! He’s alive!” Tim was very awake at this declaration as the Robin he had grown up with was back and alive! Damian was conflicted at the thought of another fake stealing his father’s love and the fact that he knew the only way this Jason could’ve been resurrected was if he was placed in the Lazurus pit. And the only person who had used the Lazurus pit that wasn't an Al Ghul was Wasi, his Guardian. The one who had shown him so much care was entering  _ this _ family to steal Father’s love for Batman. No, Wasi wouldn’t do that. Right?

Bruce darted off and the Batboys followed close behind. Bruce skidded to a stop in front of Jason’s old room. The door was covered in dust, and hadn’t been opened in years. Dick took a deep breath and opened the door.

Inside, the room was clean, and the window was unlocked. A vent cover was removed, which finally explained fow Jason had been moving undetected, but didn’t explain how he got the bookshelf into the dining room. In the center of the room - where Jason’s bed used to be - the old frame was gone, and a huge mattress was laying on the floor. A ridiculous amount of pillows covered the bed, but no blankets. (How Wasi slept at Infinity Island - minus the pillows, but he did have the fluffiest) (How Jason would always slept in fear of the blankets strangling him)

Of course, with the discovery of Jason, the discovery of more books came. Most weren’t written in English, but the Batfam didn’t have much trouble reading most of them.

When Jason semi-moved into the Manor, Dick came back far more often. And with him his things. It seemed Jason being alive was the catalyst. Soon huge fuzzy sweaters began to appear all around the manor. Tim tripped on them more than once. A Nightwing blue summer dress would appear under the sofa after Dick spent an hour running around looking for a long and flowing Slytherin green dress. It was normal around Wayne Manor to find a random piece of clothing - you really never knew what they were for - or books. 

Tim, tired of tripping on clothing and books, began eating more sugar to stay awake. He would pester Jason to bake various sweets and hoard them in his room. Soon, stashes of chocolate were as common as books and fuzzy things.

Damian was a lot slower on the hoarding, but he had begun earlier. Before Jason had arrived, Damian had a pet cat he named Alfred, the ever-amazing Ace, and the numbers only grew. Soon Bat-cow joined, and one cat became three cats and four kittens, two dogs filled the house with noise, and Krypto basically lived at the Manor now. Three chickens live in the backyard of the Wayne’s, and there are some songbirds of Damian’s that live in the greenhouse.

Bruce, not wanting to be left out, brought home Cassandra and Duke. Cass collected various CD’s, but they never left the music room. Duke soon moved in and the pile of books multiplied overnight. Often times, short stories would be found on counter-tops, written in Duke’s handwriting.

It was clear to Tim. The Chaos was caused by the Bats tendency to hoard, whether Children and Animals, Books and Music, or Sweets and Clothes, Bats really liked collecting.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the start of a series of one-shots starring Robin from age 8 to Damian Wayne.


End file.
